


Debating Passion

by squidgie



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 13:57:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2231613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squidgie/pseuds/squidgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I posted a call for AU prompts in my LJ, and hoktauri wanted X-Files, Mulder/Krycek, "Aliens still make them do it".  This is my take.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debating Passion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lemonstiles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonstiles/gifts).



"How can you truly believe that?" Scientist Fox Mulder, the head of the S.E.T.I. project asks the handsome man, sitting across from him nursing a cup of coffee in the little greasy diner where they'd taken refuge after their very public debate. The debate, with Pastor Alex Krycek, was on the existence of Extra Terrestrials, and had been quiet animated, with both men speaking passionately for their own side. "I mean, there are billions of stars that have planets in the Goldilocks zone; there's bound to be life on at least _one_ of them."

Alex Krycek nods when the waitress comes by and tops off his coffee mug. "Doctor Mulder-" he starts, but stops himself. He looks at Mulder, shaking his head. "I am a man of faith. You have to understand where I'm coming from."

"Yes," Mulder counters. "But sometimes the church gets it wrong. Galileo and his theories that the Earth is not the center of the Universe. Darwin and his theory of Evolution. Hell, even me, as a gay man-"

"Doctor Mulder," Krycek begins again. "I said I'm a man of faith, _not_ a man of the church."

Mulder cocks his head to the side and leans back in the Naugahyde covered booth. "What's the difference?"

Alex takes a deep breath, as Mulder rakes his eyes up and down Alex's body sitting across from him. "It's... Doctor Mulder, have you ever read any of Sagan's work?"

" _You_? You're asking if _I_ have read any of Carl Sagan's work?" Mulder asks, voice incredulous. "I should ask you the same thing."

Taking another sip from his coffee, Alex clenches his jaw, a hint of a smile starting to take shape across his face. He looks down, focusing on his coffee, and Mulder thinks it's almost a position of one giving confession. "Actually, I'm quite fond of some of the man's work. His book 'Contact' was almost as much about religion as it was about science fiction and interstellar life." His smile becomes full, and he looks up, finding the scientist grinning at him, a mischievous twinkle shining from his eyes. "I may be a man of faith, but in the end, I'm just a man."

Krycek's tone tells Mulder everything he needs to know, with the volume of unsaid desires hanging heavy around them.

"There's obviously quite a bit about you that I don't know," Mulder says. He moves his long legs, moving his right foot, and letting it come to rest between Krycek's feet, smiling when he raises a foot gently against Alex's own and the man's breath hitches minutely. "But I think I'd like to find out more."

"As would I, Doctor Mulder," Krycek responds. "As would I..."


End file.
